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Thursday, September 6, 2012

Works by Michigan Artists - Ann Arbor Observer

Every fall during college, after all our books were purchased and fees paid, the last thing on the shopping list was always posters or art. With whatever money we had left, my girlfriends and I would scour the poster bins for something big and colorful to cover our bare dorm or apartment walls. Every year, the desired "look" would change, depending on who we were that year, what image we wanted to project. But what really made it "classy" (or so we thought) was framing the giant poster with a cheap but giant frame.

As we grew older, we shifted from posters and prints to original art. However the tension between the look we want to project, the space in which we live, and the cost continues to hang in balance.

I had heard for many years about the art print collection available for loan at the Ann Arbor District Library, but didn't know where to find it. It turns out the posters and prints are on display on the third and fourth floors of the downtown branch, where folks can view and check out every past Ann Arbor Art Fair poster, posters from art museums around the country, prints of famous paintings and drawings ("The Scream," "Starry Night," "Don Quixote"), photography, calligraphy, and original art. Walking through the collection like a gallery, knowing all I had to do was take a piece off the wall and it could be mine for eight weeks, was easy, fun, exciting.